If you've been applying and not hearing back I just want to say:The market is hard right now. Positions are disappearing before they're filled. Every role has hundreds of applicants. Senior titles are being attached to mid-level budgets. Hiring freezes are very real.None of this is a reflection of your value.I want you to sit with that before we continue.The difficulty you're experiencing in this job market is not evidence that you aren't good enough. It is absolutely not. It's evidence that...
2 days ago • 2 min read
A designer I worked with recently went through a multi-round interview process for a role she really wanted. She didn't have multiple case studies covering every type of project. She had only three, with one exceptional case study placed first on her homepage that she knew it inside and out.By the second round the entire conversation had shifted. The hiring team had her to go deeper on that one project. Her design strategy. How she collaborated across functions. How she approached the problem...
9 days ago • 3 min read
Early in my career I sat in a meeting that I still think about often. We were working through a project that wasn't coming together. The room was full of smart people talking in circles. And I had an idea that I genuinely believed would elevate the whole direction we were discussing.I didn't say it.I was new to the company. Wasn't sure my opinion would land the right way. I didn't want to say the wrong thing in front of everyone. So I sat there for the rest of the meeting and said nothing.The...
16 days ago • 3 min read
A few months ago I was working with a mid-level designer on his portfolio. He had great work and his case studies were well structured. But something was missing from every project- there were no results. No data points. No evidence of impact. Nothing that connected his design decisions to what happened after the work shipped.I asked him: what changed after this launched?He took a minute then answered "well the new platform workflow I designed actually saved the team a significant amount of...
23 days ago • 2 min read
The design job market in 2026 is the most challenging I've seen in a long time. And, I've lived through a few in the past 25 years.Layoffs. Hiring freezes. Roles that get posted and then disappear. Designers with great work and real experience sending out applications for months without a single callback.If that's where you are right now, I want you to know something: it's not just you. And it's not just your portfolio.But here's what I've also seen this year.Designers landing roles. Yes, it...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
Moving from a designer who designs things, to a designer who oversees someone who designs things takes a different set of skills. The craft you once obsessed over becomes something you now oversee from a distance. For me, it felt very disorienting at first.When I first moved into a lead role I remember catching myself. I wanted to fix others work myself. But, leading others means learning when not to touch the work, even when you can see exactly what you’d do differently. The goal shifts:...
about 1 month ago • 4 min read
Most portfolios show the screens but very few focus on explaining the work. If your case study doesn’t clearly explain: The problem Your role The outcome Recruiters will have to fill in the blanks. And they usually guess wrong.I teach a UX Portfolio class at Pratt Institute, and this is one of the first things we work on. Because a strong case study isn’t just a gallery of screen and images.It’s a story about how you solved a problem.Over the years, I’ve developed a simple structure I use...
about 1 month ago • 3 min read
I used to think networking was all about meeting new people. Going to events, sending cold emails, “putting myself out there.” Over time, I realized that some of my best opportunities didn’t come from brand-new connections. They came from people I already knew. People I made the effort to stay in touch with.In today’s crazy market, maintaining relationships matters more than ever.For mid and senior level designers this is especially important. You’ve spent years building relationships with...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
Here’s what hiring managersexpect at mid-level One of the hardest parts of being a mid-level designer is this:The expectations change, but no one tells you they have.You’re no longer being evaluated like a junior. But you’re often still presenting your work that way.Here’s what hiring managers actually expect from a mid-level designer. 1. Ownership Junior designers are expected to contribute. Mid-level designers are expected to own parts of the work.It means being able to clearly answer: •...
3 months ago • 1 min read